Tuesday, April 9, 2013

Sri Srinivasan - The Supreme Court Nominee-in-Waiting

This is one hell of happy news for us;
it’s an expression of integration, that Indians are fully participating and
contributing members of the society at large. Despite the flaws in our
democracies (American and Indian), we are the most inclusive societies.

The New Yorker reports this great news: "The next Supreme Court confirmation hearing begins on Wednesday afternoon,
April 10th. Technically, Sri Srinivasan is just a candidate for the United
States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, but few are misled. The stakes in
this nomination are clear: if Srinivasan passes this test and wins confirmation,
he’ll be on the Supreme Court before President Obama’s term ends."

We have a lot more work to do in India and the United States to truly make it a
society, where every individual is honored for his or her contributions to the
nation building without regards to his or her religion, race, ethnicity, sexual
orientation and nationality.

We do have bigots in both nations and we need to continue to have a dialogue
with them to treat every American (USA) or Indian (India) as an individual to
be treated with full dignity without prejudice.

When a Sikh, Buddhist, Jain, Christian, Dalit, Muslim and Hindu achieves
success, and if each one of us can celebrate that success by draining sewerage
out of our hearts that he is a Christian, Muslim or Sikh... then we have
achieved Moksha, Mukti and freedom, and congratulations to all those who have
achieved that, and those who have not, please do not miss out that opportunity in
your life time.

The Supreme Court Nominee-in-Waiting

By Jeffrey Toobin

The next Supreme Court confirmation hearing begins on Wednesday afternoon,
April 10th. Technically, Sri Srinivasan is just a candidate for the United
States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, but few are misled. The stakes in
this nomination are clear: if Srinivasan passes this test and wins confirmation,
he’ll be on the Supreme Court before President Obama’s term ends.

The next Supreme Court confirmation hearing begins on Wednesday afternoon,
April 10th. Technically, Sri Srinivasan is just a candidate for the United
States Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, but few are misled. The stakes in
this nomination are clear: if Srinivasan passes this test and wins confirmation,
he’ll be on the Supreme Court before President Obama’s term ends.

The D.C. Circuit has long operated as a Supreme Court farm team (John
Roberts, Antonin Scalia, Clarence Thomas, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg played their
AAA ball there), and Republicans have worked with zeal, and amazing success, to
keep Obama from placing a single judge on that court. Just last month, Caitlin
Halligan, an eminently qualified New York prosecutor whose confirmation had been
shamefully blocked by Senate Republicans for more than two years, withdrew her candidacy. Srinivasan is next up for
consideration.

Srinivasan, who is forty-six years old, is currently the Obama
Administration’s principal deputy solicitor general. He’s had twenty or so
arguments in the Supreme Court, including part of the Administration’s attack on
the Defense of Marriage Act last month. He’s been a corporate litigator at
O’Melveny & Myers; a junior lawyer in the Office of the Solicitor General;
and a law clerk to J. Harvie Wilkinson, who is a moderate conservative on the
Fourth Circuit, and then to Sandra Day O’Connor. He earned degrees from Stanford
in college, law school, and even business school; he grew up in Lawrence,
Kansas, where his parents taught at the state university.

When Srinivasan’s name first surfaced as a possible nominee to the federal
bench, early in Obama’s first term, he drew opposition from labor groups, who
appeared to take issue with some of his stands as a private lawyer and in George
W. Bush’s Justice Department. (He was a career lawyer, not a political
appointee, under Bush.) Lately, those objections to Srinivasan have become muted
or disappeared altogether. In part, this may be because those kinds of
challenges to a nominee are inherently unfair; lawyers, after all, represent
clients.

More importantly, perhaps, liberal groups have become so frustrated with
President Obama’s dithering on judicial nominations that they are happy to see
him put forward almost any name. There are four vacancies on the D.C.
Circuit, and Obama has just one current nominee for that court. There are, in
total, eighty-seven vacancies on the federal courts, and right now the
President has just twenty-five nominees to fill those seats. In light of the
tactics of obstruction and delay that Republicans have used against his
nominees, Obama’s failure to fill the pipeline will cripple his efforts to leave
a broad judicial legacy.

In fairness, Obama’s team has at least mustered a comprehensive effort on
Srinivasan’s behalf. Most notably, twelve former Solicitors General, including
such Republican notables as Kenneth Starr and Paul Clement, have signed a letter endorsing Srinivasan’s confirmation. He has the
sort of impeccable credentials that are much beloved by the Supreme Court bar,
though Srinivasan’s own views on the Constitution are more difficult to discern.
He has written many briefs but few articles that reveal his own thinking. He is
a protégé of Walter Dellinger, the acting Solicitor General in the Clinton
Administration and a (mostly) beloved (mostly) liberal figure in the world of
the Supreme Court. The safe assumption seems to be that Srinivasan would be the
same kind of moderate liberal as Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan (and Ruth Bader
Ginsburg and Stephen Breyer, for that matter).

The real issue with a potential Srinivasan nomination would be political.
Ginsburg is the justice most likely to retire in the next two years. Would Obama select
a woman to take her place? Tom Goldstein, the proprietor of the indispensable
SCOTUSblog, thinks the President will feel compelled to keep three women on
the court. He points to Kamala Harris, the attorney general of California, as
the most likely choice. (It’s now well known that the President already finds
Harris an, er, attractive office holder.) Another possibility is Jacqueline
Nguyen, a Vietnamese immigrant who now serves on the Ninth Circuit. But there hasn’t been an active
politician like Harris named to the Court since Earl Warren in 1953, and Nguyen
is little-known outside California. (If the President does go for a politician,
I think the more likely possibility is Amy Klobuchar, the senior Senator from
Minnesota.) I am less sure than Goldstein that Obama will nominate a woman to
replace Ginsburg. There is no female candidate as obvious as Sotomayor was in
2009, and Srinivasan would, as the first Indian-American on the court, be a
history-making choice.

Plus, if Srinivasan runs the confirmation gauntlet now, it will be difficult
for Republicans to argue that he’s unconfirmable just months later. His
credentials would surely appeal to Obama, who has a fondness for technocrats,
and his thin paper trail would make him difficult to attack. Which is why it
looks very much like this hearing isn’t just a test for Srinivasan—it’s a dress
rehearsal.

Illustration, of Sri Srinivasan speaking about the Defense of Marriage Act
at the Supreme Court, by Art Lien/Reuters.

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REAL ESTATE IN INDIA

INDIAN HEROES

These are the men and women from among Hindus, Dalits, Adivasis, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Buddhists, Zoroastrians, Jews, and other traditions that are deeply committed to the idea of One India and one people acknowledging the uniqueness of each one of the Indians.

Their work brings people together, their effort is to restore harmony among Indians unlike some lost souls who are hell bent on pitting one Indian against the other.

Lord Krishna had said, whenever the negative forces become stronger in dividing families and disrupt peace and harmony, he will emerge among them to restore sanity, the same idea is reflected in Quran, that God does not deprive his goodness to anyone and sends a peacemaker to every community and nation. After the founding fathers of the nation, these are our real heroes restoring dharma – the righteousness. Dharma is when people get along, mind their own business, live their lives and let others live theirs. God has created all of us and respects each one of us is the highest form of worship.

I salute them for their work and they come from all walks of life. They see you as an Indian and nothing but an Indian. They believe every human should be free to eat, drink, wear or believe whatever he or she wants in the pursuit of their happiness.

Please share stories of such Indians who have made efforts to build a cohesive India, an India where no Indian lives in apprehension, tension or fear of the other.

INDIAN HEROES - NEW FROM 12/20/17

PATRIOTISM

Two of India’s dangerous trends: Misplaced Patriotism and intolerance towards different points of view.

The real heroes of India are those who relentlessly “criticize” the government because they do not want their government to falter and make decisions that will mess up the social structure of the nation. They keep the government rascals on their toes. After all, they are elected to serve us not the other way around. The real heroes rise the nation for the common good of all.

What do the Chamchas on the other hand do? They wear a false badge of patriotism and to them patriotism is oppression of those who differ, and war mongering. They cannot handle criticism of government, they are yes sir, yes sir I lick your chappals. They bring down the nation by keeping their man at helm in a bubble giving him or her false assurance that everything is alright.

I hope the Prime Minister wises up and invites and honors those who criticize him, they are the real supporters of him by reminding him from falling into the pit. He should welcome all those who criticize. He needs to defend the rights of such heroes. The Indian Citizens on the other hand need to make a conscious effort to support those who criticize the government, BJP or Congress or any one.

The test of a successful civilized nation is when every man and woman of India can breathe, eat, drink, wear and believe whatever the hell she or he wants to believe.

UPRIGHT BUREAUCRATS

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ABOUT MIKE GHOUSE

Mike Ghouse is committed to his life mission of building cohesive work places, communities and nations. His work is for the Indians and Americans where each one of the 322 million Americans should feel secure without apprehension or fear of the other.

He is one of the 5 people in the world who is actively pursuing research, activism and teaching the subject of Pluralism. Just Google and find a tremendous amount of work on pluralism in religion, politics, society and culture. Mike defines Pluralism as an attitude of “respecting the otherness of other” and accepting the God-given uniqueness of each one of us.

He is a pluralist, thinker, writer, activist and a speaker on Pluralism, Interfaith, politics, Islam, human rights and foreign policy including India and Israel-Palestine. He is a news maker, interfaith wedding officiant and a community consultant and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day.

Dr. Ghouse has appeared in over 300 National TV shows and is a frequent guest with Hannity and Varney shows at Fox News along with others. He has over 1000 hours of Radio Shows of which 700 were dedicated to interfaith and pluralism. Over 3500 articles have been published of which a 1000 were on politics, foreign policy, sports and movies, a 1500 for interfaith and pluralism matters and a 1000 plus on Islam. In addition Mike has conducted workshops on Atheist to Zoroastrian and every one in between.

Mike is committed to building cohesive societies and offers pluralistic solutions on issues of the day. His work is at www.Centerforpluralism.com and www.WorldMuslimCongress.org

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We are proud of our heritage - a multi-faith, multi-cultural, multi-regional and multi-linguistic society, where we have come to accept and respect every which way people have lived their lives. For over 5000 years, India has been a beacon of pluralism - it has embraced Islam, Christianity, Judaism, Baha’i and Zoroastrianism to include in the array of the indigenous religions; Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. India led the way to the freedom movement, since 1947 every country has been liberated from colonialism. Indian democracy is a shining example to the world, where the people have peacefully transferred the powers. Indians are inherently secular and economically capitalistic. They believe in "live-and-let-live" life style, which is the essence of capitalism.Through the years we have expressed the highest degree of maturity on handling extreme situations; the more divergent opinions we hear, the larger our heart grows, the bigger our embrace would be and we can cushion more differences. Let’s continue to honor the concept that there is always another side to the story, as finding the truth is our own responsibility.I am proud of my heritage and am proud to be an Indian-American. Please join me in the discovery of India on a daily basis, as time permits and share the wealth of knowledge you have on this forum.

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